Habibo Muhammad: "No one could survive Mogadishu"

Shamso Hussein is three and can barely understand the fast unfolding events of her short life. She and her mother had to flee the familiar surroundings of Mogadishu, travel in a truck for days, and now she has been admitted to a health centre suffering from acute watery diarrhoea (AWD).

Her mother, Habibo Muhammad, whisked her on her back one night and that was the beginning of their seven-day journey from Mogadishu to Waajid. Mother and daughter have been staying with an old friend in Waajid district. "No one could survive Mogadishu. There were shootings and shelling day and night. When we no longer felt safe, most of the people in my neighbourhood left,” says Muhammad. "Shamso is the only precious thing I was able to take before I left Mogadishu. All I want is for her to be alive,” she says.

Luckily for Muhammad and her daughter, there was a truck leaving Mogadishu for Baidoa that night and they got a lift, unlike others who had to walk. “We sat in the back of the truck among mattresses, food and other fleeing people, throughout the cold rainy nights and days,” explained Muhammad.

“I feel sad seeing Shamso sick,” she adds. Shamso was admitted to the World Vision health centre in Waajid, where she is recuperating. Her mother says she is getting better.

“When I brought her to the hospital she could not open her eyes. She was very frail, vomiting and had an uncontrolled running tummy. But now, she can open her eyes, talk, drink water, and eat porridge. I am so happy she is doing fine,” adds Muhammad.

Shamso and her mother are just two of the estimated hundreds of thousands of Mogadishu residents who fled the recent fighting in the city.

no/ah/mw